California Leave of Absence Laws: CFRA, PDL, and Paid Leave

California’s leave of absence laws give workers some of the strongest time-off protections in the country, covering family caregiving, pregnancy, illness, bereavement, reproductive loss, jury duty, voting, organ donation, domestic violence recovery, and school activities. Most of these protections start at employers with just five workers, and the state runs a wage-replacement program so you’re not always going without pay. Which law applies to your situation depends on the reason for your leave, your employer’s size, and how long you’ve worked there.

Family and Medical Leave Under the CFRA

The California Family Rights Act, Government Code section 12945.2, is the state’s main job-protection law. It applies to any private employer with five or more employees and to all state and local government employers. You qualify once you’ve been with your employer more than 12 months and have worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12 months before your leave starts.¹

Eligible employees get up to 12 workweeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in any 12-month period. The qualifying reasons are:

Bonding with a new child after birth, adoption, or foster placement.
Caring for a seriously ill child, parent, spouse, registered domestic partner, grandparent, grandchild, or sibling.
Caring for a “designated person” — someone related by blood or whose relationship with you is the equivalent of family. Your employer can limit you to one designated person per 12-month period.
Your own serious health condition when you cannot perform your job duties.

That designated-person category matters. It means a close friend who functions like a sibling, or a long-term partner who isn’t a registered domestic partner, can be a covered relationship.¹ California’s family definition under CFRA is broader than federal FMLA, which covers only a spouse, parent, or child.²

While you’re out, your employer must maintain your group health insurance at the same level and on the same terms as if you were still working.³ Your leave doesn’t count as a break in service for seniority, and when you return, your employer must place you in the same or a comparable position with the same pay and duties.⁴

Pregnancy Disability Leave

Pregnancy Disability Leave is a separate right under Government Code section 12945. Any employer with five or more employees must provide it, and there is no minimum tenure or hours requirement. You’re eligible from your first day on the job.⁵

The leave covers up to four months per pregnancy, but only for the period you are actually disabled by pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition. Your healthcare provider determines the length.⁶ It can be continuous or intermittent depending on your condition.

Because Pregnancy Disability Leave runs separately from CFRA, the two can stack. Once your pregnancy disability ends, you can take up to 12 weeks of CFRA bonding leave if you meet CFRA’s eligibility rules. Together, that can give a new parent roughly seven months of job-protected time away, with health insurance maintained throughout.

Getting Paid While on Leave: SDI and Paid Family Leave

CFRA and Pregnancy Disability Leave protect your job, but your employer isn’t required to pay you. That’s what California’s two state-run insurance programs are for. Nearly every W-2 employee funds them through a payroll deduction of 1.3% of wages in 2026.⁷

State Disability Insurance

SDI pays partial wages when you can’t work because of a non-work-related illness, injury, or pregnancy. Benefits last up to 52 weeks and replace roughly 70 to 90 percent of your usual wages, depending on your income, up to a maximum of $1,765 per week.⁸ You file through the Employment Development Department, and there’s a seven-day waiting period before benefits begin.

Paid Family Leave

PFL covers wage replacement when you take time off to bond with a new child or care for a seriously ill family member. It pays the same 70 to 90 percent, with the same $1,765 weekly maximum, for up to eight weeks in a 12-month period.⁹

PFL and CFRA are often confused, but they do different things. PFL is a check from the state. CFRA is job protection from your employer. You apply for them separately, and qualifying for one doesn’t automatically qualify you for the other. Someone six months into a new job could collect PFL benefits but wouldn’t yet have CFRA job protection because they haven’t met the 12-month service requirement.

Paid Sick Leave

The Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act, Labor Code sections 245 through 249, requires nearly every California employer to provide paid sick leave. If you’ve worked for the same employer for 30 or more days within a year, you’re covered.¹⁰

The minimum is 40 hours, or five days, of paid sick leave per year. Employers using an accrual method must give you at least one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked, and you must have at least 40 hours accrued by your 200th calendar day. An employer can instead front-load the full five days at the start of each year. Annual usage can be capped at 40 hours.

You can use sick leave for your own health needs, including preventive care, or to care for a family member. The definition of family matches the CFRA list: children, parents, spouses, domestic partners, grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, and designated persons.

Bereavement and Reproductive Loss Leave

Government Code section 12945.7 requires employers with five or more employees to grant up to five days of bereavement leave after the death of a family member. You must have worked for the employer for at least 30 days.¹¹ Covered relations include a spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, domestic partner, or parent-in-law.

The five days don’t have to be consecutive, but all of them must be used within three months of the death. The employer isn’t required to pay for those days, though you can use accrued paid time off. If your employer asks for documentation, you have 30 days from the first day of leave to provide it. A death certificate, published obituary, or written verification from a funeral home works.¹¹

California also requires employers with five or more workers to provide up to five days of leave after a reproductive loss event. Qualifying events include miscarriage, stillbirth, failed adoption, failed surrogacy, and unsuccessful assisted reproduction such as a failed embryo transfer.¹² The days can be spread out but must be used within three months of the event. If you experience more than one loss in a year, you’re entitled to up to 20 days total. Thirty days of service is the eligibility threshold, and the employer cannot require you to disclose the specific nature of the loss.

Civic Duty, Voting, Donation, Victim, and School Activity Leave

Jury duty and court appearances. Labor Code section 230 prohibits your employer from firing or penalizing you for serving on a jury or appearing under a subpoena. You must give reasonable notice with a copy of the summons or subpoena. The time is unpaid, but any adverse action is illegal.¹³

Voting. Elections Code section 14000 guarantees up to two hours of paid time off to vote in a statewide election if you don’t have enough time outside working hours. The time comes at the beginning or end of your shift, whichever gives you the most time to vote with the least disruption.¹⁴

Organ and bone marrow donation. Labor Code section 1510 gives organ donors up to 30 business days of paid leave, plus another 30 business days of unpaid leave if needed. Bone marrow donors get up to five business days of paid leave. Your group health insurance continues during the paid portion.¹⁵

Domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. Labor Code section 230.1 protects employees at companies with 25 or more workers who need time off as victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. You can use it to seek medical care, obtain a restraining order, get counseling, plan for safety, or relocate.¹⁶ Reasonable advance notice is expected when possible; after-the-fact notice is acceptable in an emergency.

School activities. Labor Code section 230.8 requires employers with 25 or more employees at the same location to allow parents up to 40 hours per year to participate in school activities for children in kindergarten through 12th grade. That covers enrolling a child, attending school events, and responding to child care emergencies. No more than eight hours may be used in any single calendar month.¹⁷

How to Request and Document Leave

For CFRA leave that’s foreseeable — a planned surgery, an expected due date, a scheduled adoption — California’s implementing regulations require at least 30 days’ advance notice.¹⁸ When the need is unexpected, give notice as soon as you reasonably can.

For medical leaves, the main document is a healthcare provider’s certification stating when the condition began and how long you’ll be away. You do not have to disclose your specific diagnosis. The certification just needs to confirm a serious health condition that prevents you from working or that a family member needs your care.

Your employer must respond within five business days, telling you whether you’re eligible and whether the leave is approved. Submit everything in writing and keep dated copies. If there’s a dispute later about whether you followed the proper steps, your paper trail is the evidence.

For bereavement and reproductive loss leave, you don’t have to provide documentation before starting. If asked, you have 30 days from the first day of leave to supply it.¹¹

Retaliation and Your Remedies

California treats retaliation for taking protected leave as an unlawful employment practice. If your employer fires you, demotes you, cuts your hours, or takes any other negative action because you exercised your right to leave, you can file a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department or bring a lawsuit.

Remedies under CFRA are broader than what federal FMLA offers. You can recover back pay and front pay for lost wages, emotional distress damages, punitive damages, and attorney’s fees. Federal FMLA does not allow emotional distress or punitive damages, so California workers who can bring their claim under state law are often in a stronger position.

Retaliation is where most leave disputes actually play out. Employers rarely deny leave outright in writing. The problems usually surface after you return: sudden poor performance reviews, reassignment to a less desirable role, or inclusion in a “reorganization.” Document everything before, during, and after your leave. Contemporaneous notes about conversations with your manager or HR carry real weight if you need to prove that the timing of an adverse action was connected to your leave.

1
California Legislative Information. California Government Code 12945.2 – Family Care and Medical Leave
2
Civil Rights Department. Family Care and Medical Leave Quick Reference Guide
3
Cornell Law Institute. California Code of Regulations Title 2 Section 11092 – Terms of CFRA Leave
4
California Legislative Information. California Government Code 12945.2 – Family Care and Medical Leave
5
Civil Rights Department. Pregnancy Disability Leave Fact Sheet
6
California Legislative Information. California Government Code 12945 – Discrimination Prohibited
7
Employment Development Department. Contribution Rates and Benefit Amounts
8
Employment Development Department. Disability Insurance Benefit Payment Amounts
9
Employment Development Department. Paid Family Leave Benefit Payment Amounts
10
California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 245-249 – Paid Sick Days
11
California Legislative Information. California Government Code 12945.7 – Bereavement Leave
12
Civil Rights Department. Leave From Work After a Reproductive Loss
13
California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 230 – Leave for Jury Duty or Legal Proceedings
14
California Legislative Information. California Elections Code 14000 – Privileges of Voters
15
California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 1510 – Organ and Bone Marrow Donation
16
California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 230.1 – Victim Leave
17
California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 230.8 – School Activities Leave
18
Cornell Law Institute. California Code of Regulations Title 2 Section 11091 – Requests for CFRA Leave